Dumb Luck vs Dumbness

After this I jumped back on Jo's bike and rode on the lovely Yarra bike path around to Ikea (12.5kms). As I rode I noticed  that my legs were actually pretty tired from all the skating so I was happy to go inside and have a break and some lunch in the Ikea cafe ($5.87 - bargain!).  As I locked up the bike to go inside, I dropped a dollar coin on the ground. I thought to myself 'I'll get that in a second after I've gotten my stuff sorted out' but of course I forgot about it and left it on the ground.

An hour or so later, I returned to the bike and there was that dollar! Amazing - as you can imagine the pedestrian entrance to Ikea is a busy place so I was pretty surprised it wasn't gone. 

I was so happy to finally make it back home  - as I rifled through my bag for the house keys all I could think about was having a bath and then a rest. But I couldn't find the keys!  - The same set of  keys I had unlocked the bike with back at Ikea. 

I searched every corner of my bag for 15 minutes before deciding that my only option was to ride back to Ikea to check the bike racking area. I took the short route (6k) - through heavy traffic,  tonnes of traffic lights and very dodgy bike lanes - and as I rode I just felt awful. The chances of finding the keys were between Buckley's and none, and my next step was going to have to be declaring to Jo that I'd lost her keys, and  probably riding down to her partner Matt's work in South Melbourne to get his keys (I wasn't sure which was going to be the worse of those activities).  And I was already very tired, AND no doubt there were probably keys in that set which couldn't be replaced.  What a disaster - and all because I was dumb for the third time in one day.  

However fate clearly thought I should have to deal with my self induced problems myself, and I arrived back at Ikea safely,  probably 20 minutes after leaving Jo's place and at least 75 minutes since I'd left Ikea the first time.. And in the third and most amazing incidence of dumb luck for the day, I saw this..

11kms later and I was home. Having ridden 45k and skated for 90 minutes. You can bet I enjoyed that bath !  After recovering  I rode down to Clare's to supervise her packing, which probably pushed me over that 50k mark - not bad for someone who hasn't ridden in months!

Oh - and in all my comings and goings from Jo's place I managed not to let the kitten escape to its doom on Nicholson street (I bet you are surprised about that). Don't breathe easy yet though, there's always tomorrow..